The present invention relates to warewashing machines and, particularly, to a novel slidable door for a warewashing machine which permits the warewashing machine to be used for washing conventional wares as well as oversized wares.
The size of these warewashers has become fairly standardized in the industry. With slight variations, the area of the base of the warewasher, 25 in..times.25 in., has become a standard in the industry. Standard size warewashers can not accommodate oversized wares because the area of access to the washing chamber and the washing chamber, itself, are too small to allow oversized utensils to be fitted into the washing chamber. Typically, a standard warewasher has a washing chamber having an opening with dimensions of about 22 inches wide and about 17 inches high. The size constraints of the washing chamber and access areas to the washing chamber of standard warewashers do not permit items such as utensils, baking pans, cookie sheets and mixing bowls to be washed in the warewasher because these items are larger than the access doors and sometimes larger than the washing chamber itself. As a result of the size limitations in the design of standard warewashers, it is not unusual for a commercial kitchen to employ a separate washer for utensils such as baking pans, cookie sheets and mixing bowls.
Thus, need has developed in the art for a warewasher having a washing chamber and chamber doors sized for accepting oversized items such as utensils, baking pans, cookie sheets and large sized mixing bowls. This warewasher must have dimensions which fit into the same square foot floor area as a standard warewasher so that it can be used as a replacement for the standard warewasher without requiring that the kitchen, in which the warewasher is being used, be reconfigured.
A disadvantage with merely increasing the size of the door panel to allow for loading of such oversized wares is that, as the conventional door panels are conventionally slid upward to provide access to a washing chamber, increasing the size of these panels would, in some situations, be limited by the height of the kitchen ceiling.